One large rush project has taken all of my time recently - sorry to have been away from ET. It also looks 100% that I won't make Paris. Too much so-called 'mission critical' stuff going on right now. In addition to the B2B presentations that I mostly work on, we (co-scripter and I) have two new TV series going in to commissioning editors shortly. One of which started here at ET. Commissioning editors have autonomous power to unleash budgets - so we are actually in the final stage of sales process number one.
Sales process number two is to sell the project to the people who are going to be involved in it, and stage 3 is the audience. The project needs to be presented in a different manner to each audience. You can't be me, I'm taken
What is the tv series, that started here on ET about. I seem to have missed something. :-)
An example was that: if every family in Finland bought a Plasma TV it would require the electrical energy of one more nuclear reactor. On the other hand, if all Finnish homes were equipped with CFL lamps, we'd save a reactor's worth.
The series is based on the simple Scandinavian behavioural trait (and I don't know if it would work elsewhere) that what your neighbours do, defines what you do. When most believe that happiness is produced by possessing the biggest SUV you can afford, to keep up with the neighbours, it is hard to promote a message of sustainability. If however, you can make sustainability cool, then the neighbourhood trend leaders will establish a new measure of happiness. Behaviour is group driven - led by what Nokia might demograph as 'mature attractors'.
And providing you can show that it is just common sense, it becomes very much harder for the wasters to justify their idiocy. As I said - this is a peculiarly Scandinavian phenomenon.
The other thing about the cooperative Scandinavians is that the old 'my word is my bond' ethos still holds. Thus if you can extract promises from people about future behaviour, you are well on the way to change. The format of the series is built on the promises that competing families will make to reduce their lifestyle burden on resources. Thus totally wasteful families could win the competition because they can promise more. But having promised - for all to witness - they could be 'outcast' if they fail to live up to those promises. You can't be me, I'm taken
My conversations with Ordinary Citizens recently indicate that there has been a change of mood. The last 12 months has seen a 3% drop in Finnish kilometres driven after decades of constant rises. It will continue. The magazines are full of sustainable lifestyle tips.
All this fills me with happiness. Seems like we can finally make a difference ;-) You can't be me, I'm taken
I watched a fairly heated debate between this guy and a friend of mine which resulted in my friend saying "I'm really not convinced that's going to happen".
To which I asked another friend, "what's not gonna happen?" ... "Alien invasion", he said.
I guess I should also say that I had a very energetic debate myself with a friend on how to engage the apathetic, disillusioned, disengaged and largely poor/working class section of our population. I talked about how the left wing narrative is failing to overcome the dominant right wing narrative right now. He doesn't even think there is a left wing narrative (he's a radical lefty green type). He reckons that none of the political parties really represent people outside the Daily Mail reading/corporate types bracket (Can't disagree too much) but nor am I convinced that we can just set up our own movement from the ground (cue all those apathetic yet still 'me, me, me' people with no critical thinking skills) to battle it out with the three main players... Ad astra per aspera
Good Luck with the Meeting! Remember, any show's audience appeal is always increase by a cute pet:
(note snow & shades. perfect for Finland)
Maybe television is different, so i'll defer to your decision, but in the world of feature films, there's nothing as satisfying as waiting 'til 3 weeks past deadline and writing the first draft in ten days of ignoring the fear-based adrenaline, focusing instead on the vision which was exactly as you saw it a year and a half before.
Still, a premature Coal Ila toast may be in order, at least accompanied by propitiations to the Goddesses that you find the inspiration and focus that you deserve, as well as a greenlight.
(This comment is not autobiographical. In my screenwriter days, i began at 9AM and worked diligently until 5:30 or 6:30, often with an hour of so for a mid-day refueling repast. Never once did i rely on inspiration at 3AM; never once did i rely on inspiration at 3AM; never once... OK, never once was i able to do more than wait 'til the last minute was long gone, and then write all night.) "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
But when Yle-TV deadlines close, they close for another year. And I'm getting too old for these endless re-runs. The last series took 4 years to put in place, and the other series I'm proposing has been around for 5 - when we made the first pilot, during the setting up of a new movie magazine.
And in the B2B world there can be NO procrastination ;-) You can't be me, I'm taken
